Prof. Miriam (Miri) Amit is the Director of the Center and Chairpersonof the Graduate Program for Science and Technology Education at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. For more than ten years she served as theNational Superintendent of Mathematics at the Israel Ministry of Education, overseeing school curricula, national testing and mathematics education policy for the entire State of Israel.
Professor Amit’s research has been published in highly acclaimed journals and she has written four books on math and science learning and teaching. She received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, and her Ph.D. from the Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences at Ben-Gurion University.She is married and the mother of three grown children. She moved to the south of Israel, first to Eilat and then to Beer-Sheva for patriotic reasons, feeling the need to contribute to the development of these more remote regions of the country.
Born to Holocaust survivors in a refugee camp in Germany and raised in Israel during its early struggles, Prof. Amit has developed a blend of qualities that integrate academic excellence with community payback. These qualities have taken shape at Ben-Gurion University where, in addition to teaching and supervising doctoral students, she heads R&D projects that aim at promoting both excellence and equity. In particular is the ten-year old Kidumatica project, which cultivates talented students of diverse backgrounds, and has resulted in the winning of numerous prizes in mathematical Olympiads. Prof. Amit regards access to higher education for all, especially the underprivileged, as an important step toward personal growth and empowerment, and has incorporated these goals in the Kidumatica program. In her commitment to the community and promotion of academic excellence, she has directed outreach programs for the enhancement of math and science teaching in the Negev, including in Dimona and Arad.
Prof. Amit has an international reputation and is affiliated with prestigious institutions in the United States, Australia, Sweden and India that promote mathematics and science education to vast populations. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Guastella Award for the advancement and empowerment of math and science education, the British Council Award for Leaders in Mathematics Education and the IOWME (the International Organization for Women in Mathematic Education) Award for research on Gender in Mathematics
